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In January, Eastman Kodak said it was suing RIM and Apple over patent violations relating to the cameras used in BlackBerrys and the iPhone.

Today, Apple countersued Kodak, accusing the film pioneer of violating two digital photography patents that Apple owns.

Apple has accused EK of violating patents 6,031,964 and RE38,911, which are "a system and method for using a unified memory architecture to implement a digital camera device," and a "modular digital image processing via an image processing chain with modifiable parameter controls."

Adds Kodak: "As regards our intellectual property, Kodak has a long history of digital imaging innovation and we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars creating our industry-leading patent portfolio. We have an obligation to our shareholders and the other licensees to protect their interests. When others use our technology, we merely seek fair compensation for that use, in the same way that many other leading technology companies pay us to license Kodak technology."

Facebook has shutdown their "Lite" version of the site which launched last year in India and the U.S. and was aimed at Internet users with dialup or slow DSL connections.

The stripped-down site was available since September.

Adds Ray Valdes of Gartner Research: "I think a lot of the Facebook experience was left out of Lite, especially the monetisable parts...the other part of this decision is probably because they have improved the performance sufficiently with the main part of Facebook and made things run better that they didn't need this back-up approach to cover a situation of low performance."

FB Lite only allowed users to write on walls, post video and photos and browse other profiles while all other features, such as applications, were stripped out.

There was no official word on why it shutdown but it seems that there was no point to keeping it open due to lack of users.

"It would seem not enough people were using it but then there was not a lot of awareness about the product. Tears will not be shed over the loss of Facebook Lite," wrote Nick O'Neil via the BBC.

According to Asahi, Nintendo is blaming piracy for the huge 50 percent drop it has seen in DS software sales over the past year in Europe.

The company says it loses "trillions of Yen to piracy each year," with flash carts such as the R4 or the M3 blamed for most of the piracy.

Flash carts are used to run homebrew and other legal features on the Nintendo DS handheld, but also allow for the easy playback of pirated ROMs.

The company says there were about 238 million illegal downloads in 2009 of software, with the main offenders coming from Spain, France and Italy. If the numbers are accurate, Nintendo forecasted $10.7 billion in losses due to the piracy.

Google has finally released their free turn-by-turn GPS software, Google Maps Navigation for Android users in the UK, a full six months after it was launched in the United States.

Navigation will work with any Android phone running firmware 1.6 or higher.

Google mobile maps chief Steve Lee says the huge delay between the US and UK releases had to do with "a number of issues that came up during development." One of the technical issues included the excess of roundabouts in road layouts.

Additionally, Lee says that the Navigation will pre-cache the entire route you have selected, meaning users will not be affected by data connection drops.

One important note that Google says to watch out for is if you are using the voice command feature: "If someone has a really strong accent, it's going to be a bit more tricky" for Navigation to work correctly, says the company.

Target has announced that it will begin selling the e-reader market leader Amazon Kindle in its brick-and-mortar stores starting April 25th, marking the first time the device will be available in stores.

Until this announcement, Amazon had remained the exclusive e-tailer for the Kindle.

To start, the device will only be available at 103 retail stores, with a larger rollout expected as the year progresses.

The Kindle sells for $259, putting it in direct competition with the Barnes & Noble Nook and less directly with the newly launched Apple iPad which sells for $500 but has more features than just e-reading.

"We're excited to be working with Amazon to help even more readers discover Kindle, in-store only at Target," adds Mark Schindele, senior vice president of Target, via MarketWatch. "We strive to enhance our product offerings to include surprising products and services at great values so we're proud to be the first brick-and-mortar retailer to sell Kindle, allowing our guests to feel how lightweight and easy on the eyes Kindle is."

Police in Denver have released a surveillance video showing a thief stealing an iPad from a man leaving the mall, at the same time ripping off part of his left pinky finger.

The victim, Bill Jordan, was buying the tablet device at the Cherry Creek Mall for a co-worker.

"I kind of wrapped it around my fingers so I didn't drop it on the way out. It was a heavy duty bag they put it in, and had real thick cords," says Jordan, via KDVR.

As Jordan left the store, the attacker followed him, finally going for the theft when Jordan reached the door to leave the mall.

"The next thing I know, I'm spun around. I see this kid, his rear end almost on the ground, and he's pulling it out of my hand. I just remember seeing this kid pulling and pulling and pulling till it got caught. Took the flesh right off and the tendons and everything. There was nothing but bone," says the victim.

Jordan had to have his left pinky amputated after the incident.

Here is the surveillance video picture of the attacker:

According to a new report by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, texting among American teenagers has exploded over the past years, with 14-to-17-year old girls averaging over 100 sent and received per day.

Overall, over 30 percent of all those surveyed sent 100 per day while 50 percent send over 50.

As of September 2009, 54 percent of teenagers sent at least one message daily, an increase from the 38 percent figure in Pew's data taken a year before.

Teenage boys only averaged 20 per day.

Says the report: "They are using [mobile phones] to share stories and photos. They are using them to entertain themselves when they are bored. They are using them to microcoordinate their schedules and face-to-face gather­ings. And some are using their phones to go online to browse the Web, to participate in social networks and check their e-mails."

On the other hand, the report goes into the "darker" aspects of the texting growth saying: "Teens are also using mobile phones to cheat on tests and to skirt rules at school and with their parents. Some are using their phones to send sexts, others are sleeping with buzzing phones under their pillows, and some are using their phones to place calls and text while driving."

According to CVG, the Nintendo 3DS handheld will be released in October, a full six months earlier than previous reports.

The device will be unveiled at the E3 event, and CVG says "UK industry sources" have told them the handheld will hit store shelves in October, right before the holiday season.

All previous reports, including quotes from Nintendo themselves, had said only that the handheld would be launched before March of 2011.

Says one of the sources: "In my experience, you don't launch a product that early to Christmas unless you're confident in it - and going to spend a lot of money on it. We're reassured that Nintendo is going to give it some decent backing in Q4."

The 3DS, which has scant details so far, will give users a chance to enjoy "3D" software without need for glasses, and the system will be backward compatible for DS titles.

Nintendo also says the system will not just be a minor reiteration of the DS (like the DSi, and the XL) but instead a brand new console.

A few of America's larger universities have banned the Apple iPad from their campuses, saying the tablet device causes problems with their wireless networks.

For example, Princeton University recently blocked 20 percent of the iPads on campus because of "malfunctions that can affect the entire school's computer system." The University says the iPad is the root of DHCP client malfunctions, meaning it causes interference for other devices on the school's network.

In another situation, George Washington University said: "Our current authentication system isn't supported by the iPhone or the iPad." That means the devices aren't banned, but cant log in to the network.

Princeton said it is actively working with Apple to solve the problem, GWU said it will likely not be fixed until next year.

On the other hand, rival Ivy League school Cornell says they have about 80 iPad's connected to their network, with no problems whatsoever.

The news comes after the entire country of Israel decided to ban the device, citing a conflict in Wi-Fi standards used.

Intrepidus Group, a firm specializing in security and risk, has found an exploit for Palm WebOS firmware version 1.3.5, with the researchers sending a specially formatted SMS message that contains malicious HTML used to execute commands.

Says the group: "The security team was able to send SMS messages that would automatically open webpages and dial numbers to shut off the handsets radio . They say the reason the attacks are possible is because the OS is essentially a web browser written in javascript and HTML."

It is important to note that the exploit is for 1.3.5, and the newly released 1.4 fixes the vulnerabilities, although not all carriers have offered the new firmware OTA.

Palm has been struggling, with the company putting itself up for sale, with the company's software chief leaving, and retailers slashing prices just to get the phones off the shelves.

Comcast has denied today that is has any connection to RightNetwork, a start-up venture that will launch in the Republican states and will "reflect and reinforce their perspective and worldview.”

The large ISP had been identified as a key partner, and The Huffington Post went as far to call the new venture "Tea Party TV," alluding to the anti-tax protesters.

Comcast vehemently denies: "The blog reports that Comcast is an investor in, or partner of the RightNetwork are inaccurate. We have no partnership with this venture and have no plans to launch or distribute the network," says Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury.

Khoury does admit that they met with RightNetwork reps.

RightNetwork has since taken down the quote that they have partnered with Comcast, but the independently owned media company will debut sometime in 2010.

You can check some trailers of the programming here: http://rightnetwork.com/

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been responding to customer emails a lot lately, but his latest email has made the headlines, probably because it involves pornography.

When asked by customer Matthew Browning about Apple's role in being gatekeepers, Jobs responded: "We do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone."

This is the second time in the last month that Jobs has made a public connection between rival operating system Android and porn. At a Q&A after the unveiling of OS 4.0, Jobs had said: "You know, there’s a porn store for Android. You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go – so we’re not going to go there."

Apple and Google are just in the beginning stages of what should end up being the biggest rivalry in the smartphone market, and it seems for now Apple is trying to make some subtle slights at Android.

Here is the email back-and-forth, through TechCrunch:

Yesterday, Gizmodo broke what promises to be the most popular story of the next few weeks, revealing what they believe to be a prototype of Apple's upcoming "iPhone HD/4G," the fourth generation model of the extremely popular smartphone.

Today, Apple has made it abundantly clear that they want the phone back, with Gizmodo's editorial director Brian Lam saying that they have received an official letter.

The phone was found on the floor in a bar in Redwood City, with a case that camouflaged it to look like a current generation iPhone 3GS, and Gizmodo says they paid the guy who found it $5000 for the device. The prototype belonged to Apple software engineer Gray Powell. By the morning, the phone had been wiped using the MobileMe remote service.

Whether or not Apple is mad or not, Gizmodo's $5000 investment has brought them over 6 million page views in under 30 hours, a massive spike even for the largest of sites.

For the full story and pictures of the device please check here: Gizmodo reveals upcoming iPhone model

Ubisoft has announced this week that it plans to kill off paper manuals for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, "going green" if you will, in an effort that will save up to 2300 trees in the next year.

The publisher will eliminate about six million paper manuals from video game packaging.

"Ubisoft is often recognized for making great games, but it's a special privilege to be the industry leader at saving trees," notes North American president of Ubisoft Laurent Detoc. "Introducing in-game digital manuals is just the latest example of Ubisoft's ongoing commitment to being a more environmentally conscious company."

Instead of the paper manuals, the company will include digitized manuals on the game discs. Last month, Ubisoft switched to in-game digital manuals for PC games.

"We are taking steps to become an industry leader in environmentally conscious packaging," adds Ubisoft vice president of operations Rich Kubiszewski. "This obviously has impacts to the environment and the consumer, both positive. No more losing the manual, and we can provide more robust content."

Microsoft has announced today that Xbox 360 sales have surpassed one million in Australia and New Zealand.

"Reaching the one million console milestone is a great achievement and one that puts us in a great position for the coming year," added Frazer Scott, acting marketing director of entertainment and devices for Microsoft New Zealand. "Since 2006, we've taken the lead in the innovation space and driven the growth in online entertainment. Our online community, Xbox Live, is one of the largest online communities in the ANZ region with more than 525,000 subscribers. We also offer services such as Facebook and Twitter on Xbox Live and movies streamed in HD direct to your television, which really sets us apart from our competition."

As a way to celebrate the milestone, GI.biz says the company will be auctioning off celebrity-designed 360 units, as a way to aid the David Peachey Foundation, named after the former professional rugby player.